Ioc Official: Expulsions Likely In Bribery Scandal

January 22, 1999|By Philip Hersh, Tribune Olympic Sports Writer.

NEW YORK — The man leading the International Olympic Committee's investigation of the largest corruption scandal in Olympic history said Thursday that IOC members improperly accepted a variety of favors over a six-year period from the Salt Lake City bid committee that won the 2002 Winter Olympics for their city.

In a private briefing with a small group of reporters after a news conference, IOC Vice President Richard Pound of Canada said he did not believe any of the deals constituted criminal activity on the part of either Salt Lake bid committee officials or the IOC members. Their activities will be detailed in a report he wants released to the public after it is presented this weekend to the IOC executive board.

Pound's five-member ad hoc investigative commission almost certainly will recommend Sunday that several members be expelled, an action never before taken by the 105-year-old Olympic governing body. He said some of what the members received in "direct cash payments and benefits" from Salt Lake City "gets into six figures."

"The supreme recourse is to expel a member and that is what we expect to do," Pound said.

During a Thursday speech to the International Sport Summit, the news conference and the briefing, Pound made his most comprehensive comments about the scope and duration of what he acknowledged was extensive corruption of IOC members related to the Salt Lake City bid campaign. In all, IOC members or their relatives received about $800,000 in gifts, cash, college scholarships and other largesse.

"We have found evidence of very disappointing conduct by IOC members," Pound said.

Rumors of such behavior in Olympic bid city campaigns have persisted for years, but the Salt Lake City case includes documentation that is the subject of five investigations. One is by the U.S. Justice Department, examining possible criminal fraud.

"I am a lay person in U.S. criminal stuff," Pound said, "but from what we see, this doesn't have (criminal) earmarks."

Pound, 56, is a Montreal tax attorney. He was a 1960 Olympic swimmer and has been an IOC member since 1978.

Pound wouldn't characterize the deals as bribes for votes, saying "the Salt Lake City folks were out to win friends (who were) more likely to support them. What was wrong on our (IOC) side is no one should ask for help and even if it is offered, they should say, `That's really great but I cannot accept it.' "

More than a dozen IOC members have been implicated in the improprieties that Pound said began "in very late 1991, (and) a couple carried past the Olympic bid into 1996." Salt Lake City was chosen 2002 host in June 1995.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain said last week 13 members had been called to account, describing nine cases as serious. Pound said he didn't know where the number nine came from.

In the course of his Thursday remarks, Pound also:

- Expressed unwavering support for Samaranch to remain IOC president, despite growing calls for him to resign.

"He has been stung by this," Pound said. "I think he would want it very much to be part of his record that although the crisis may have developed during his (17-year) presidency, he was the one that fixed it."

- Made the first apology, on the IOC's behalf, for the "actions of certain IOC members" and expressed the "IOC's deepest regret to the people and community of Salt Lake City" for having its "overall integrity called into question."

- Said his commission will seek evidence of similar wrongdoing from every city that bid--or is bidding--for the three summer Olympics and three Winter Olympics from 1996 through 2006.

"It doesn't make sense to think Salt Lake City is the first and only time this has happened," Pound said.

- Said he hoped the expanded investigation would be concluded by the March 17-18 session of the IOC membership called to deal with any members who fight expulsion. One implicated member, Pirjo Haeggman of Finland, resigned this week.

"It would be best for all of us if we deal fully, firmly and finally with this issue and not let it drag on," Pound said.

Pound rejected the notion the scandal owed in part to cultural differences, as IOC member Jim Easton of Van Nuys, Calif., suggested last week.

"Something that is OK in one country is frowned on in another," Easton said.

Nine of the 16 members mentioned in media reports as under suspicion are from Africa, three from Europe, two from South America and two from Asia. Pound said fewer than 16 will be cited in the report. "This is not a geographic or cultural or racial issue," he said. "This is a matter of acceptable behavior within the framework of the organization."

Since 1986 IOC members have been prohibited from taking gifts or favors worth more than $150 from bid cities.

Pound said there was no evidence two foreign agents who worked for the Salt Lake City bid committee, an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti, had been directly involved in buying votes.